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News & ArtsFriday, January 16, 2009
Books Seattle Poetry Chain 8: Steve Dold
Posted by Paul Constant on Fri, Jan 16, 2009 at 12:00 PM
Last week on the Seattle Poetry Chain, we ran a delightful poem by a talented poet named Susan Parr. You should go back and read it if you haven't already.
This week, Susan Parr has picked a poet you probably haven't heard of yet:
I’m pretty sure all the poets of the Stranger Chain, so far, have published books. I’d like to pick someone without a book—moreover, someone not yet chosen for a GAP grant or a residency—someone who’s not edited a journal of any kind or interned in any capacity—someone who’s career is happily in tatters, as a matter of fact—someone whose name, for example, when Googled today, returns the automatic correction, “Did you mean Steven Donald?”
I mean Steven Dold.
As Gertrude Stein said—once—I want readers so strangers must do it.
Here is Steven Dold's poem:
Many thanks to Steven Dold. Tune in next Friday at noon to see who he picks for the next link in the Seattle Poetry Chain.
1
Not so hot on this poem, but I think it's cool that Susan went way outside of the box and selected a poet beyond the usual suspects of Seattle's poetry scene. Thanks, Susan, and thanks for sharing your work, Steven.
3
"someone who’s career is happily in tatters, as a matter of fact"
Did a presumably paid-and-published writer really make that kind of grammatical error?
Did a presumably paid-and-published writer really make that kind of grammatical error?
4
@3. People make motherfucking typos; that's why writers have editors.
Oh, and poets are rarely paid.
Oh, and poets are rarely paid.
9
Hey Paul--why don't you start a new poetry chain? I'm curious to see where the next one would go (and who it would go to) given a new starting point. Thanks for doing this. It's fun.
10
Or how about a different poem from a different Steven Dold who was just passing through..........
The house faces south.
I see through a wall of windows
A yard of nearly naked, bent oaks in
A short span of grass that ends
Abruptly at a tangle of prairie that
Tumbles to the rocky shore below.
Wind gusts sweep the lake and, like a giant thumbprint,
Depress the surface, sending ripples in all directions:
Crests and troughs and curves; every scintilla of fractured surface
A blur of brilliant, flickering light from a slanted, October sun.
Squat, black mud hens bob in the chill,
Unconcerned by the glare, or the skitter of
Brittle leaves across cracked pavement.
Keep moving you say?
The house faces south.
I see through a wall of windows
A yard of nearly naked, bent oaks in
A short span of grass that ends
Abruptly at a tangle of prairie that
Tumbles to the rocky shore below.
Wind gusts sweep the lake and, like a giant thumbprint,
Depress the surface, sending ripples in all directions:
Crests and troughs and curves; every scintilla of fractured surface
A blur of brilliant, flickering light from a slanted, October sun.
Squat, black mud hens bob in the chill,
Unconcerned by the glare, or the skitter of
Brittle leaves across cracked pavement.
Keep moving you say?
11
Steve and all,
Just a reminder that we're accepting submissions to the 2009 Floating Bridge Press Chapbook Competition until February 15. Please help us spread the word to all Washington State poets.
The winner receives $500 and 15 copies of the winning book, published in Fall 2009, along with a Seattle reading (last year @RHH). Finalists receive $50 and a reading (last year @RHH). All entrants receive a copy of the winning chapbook.
Individual poems will be considered for inclusion in the next issue of Floating Bridge Review, to be published in Summer 2009. Part 1 of the next FBR will be edited by John Olsen and will contain work by Subtext writers. Part 2, "Pontoon," will contain only poems submitted to the chapbook contest. You'll find no better mix of WA state work in 2009: popular (at least to us), populist, and, hell yeah, at times abstruse.
Find our submission guidelines at http://www.scn.org/floatingbridge/submit…. (Ignore the incorrect competition year in the header.) The entry fee is $12.
Former winners include Nancy Pagh, Holly Hughes, Annette Spaulding-Convy, Timothy Kelly, Michael Bonacci, Kelli Russell Agodon, Joseph Green, Chris Forhan, Molly Tenenbaum, Nance Van Winckel, Bart Baxter, Donna Waidtlow, and Joannie Kervran. Some of these books are still available via our website.
Paul, thanks for the poetry chain.
Just a reminder that we're accepting submissions to the 2009 Floating Bridge Press Chapbook Competition until February 15. Please help us spread the word to all Washington State poets.
The winner receives $500 and 15 copies of the winning book, published in Fall 2009, along with a Seattle reading (last year @RHH). Finalists receive $50 and a reading (last year @RHH). All entrants receive a copy of the winning chapbook.
Individual poems will be considered for inclusion in the next issue of Floating Bridge Review, to be published in Summer 2009. Part 1 of the next FBR will be edited by John Olsen and will contain work by Subtext writers. Part 2, "Pontoon," will contain only poems submitted to the chapbook contest. You'll find no better mix of WA state work in 2009: popular (at least to us), populist, and, hell yeah, at times abstruse.
Find our submission guidelines at http://www.scn.org/floatingbridge/submit…. (Ignore the incorrect competition year in the header.) The entry fee is $12.
Former winners include Nancy Pagh, Holly Hughes, Annette Spaulding-Convy, Timothy Kelly, Michael Bonacci, Kelli Russell Agodon, Joseph Green, Chris Forhan, Molly Tenenbaum, Nance Van Winckel, Bart Baxter, Donna Waidtlow, and Joannie Kervran. Some of these books are still available via our website.
Paul, thanks for the poetry chain.
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